tection from the lords justices; and he
should proceed at once, with four or five witnesses, to lay the matter
before the general at Dublin, and demand the punishment of the offenders.
But if the party took the law into their own hands, and meted out the
punishment the fellows deserved, the facts of the case would be lost
sight of. There would be a cry of vengeance for the murder, as it would
be called, of a party of soldiers, and it would serve as an excuse for
harrying the whole district with fire and sword.

"Having at last persuaded the angry tenants and peasantry to lay aside
their project of vengeance, my father went to the soldiers, who, tied
hand and foot, were expecting nothing short of death. He ordered all
their pistols and ammunition to be taken away, and their bonds to be
loosed; then told them that their escape had been a narrow one, and that,
with great difficulty, he had persuaded those who had captured them while
engaged in deeds of outrage and plunder to spare them; but that a
complaint would at once be made before the military authorities, and the
law would deal with them. Finally, they were permitted to mount and ride
off, after having been closely examined to see that they were taking with
them none of the plunder of the house.

"Everything was then carefully replaced as they had found it; and my
father at once rode off, with six of the leading tenants--three
Protestants and three Catholics--and laid a complaint before the general.
The latter professed himself much shocked, and lamented the impossibility
of keeping strict discipline among the various regiments stationed in the
towns. However, he went down with them at once to the barracks of the
regiment, ordered them to be formed up, and asked my father if he could
identify the culprits.

"My father and those with him picked out fifteen, including the two
sergeants, as having formed part of the body of plunderers; and the
general had the whole tied up and flogged severely, then and there, and
declared that, the next time an outrage upon persons who had received
letters of protection came to his ears, he would shoot every man who was
proved to have been concerned in it. He also gave orders that a
well-conducted noncommissioned officer, and four men, should be sent at
once to Davenant Castle, and should there take up their quarters as a
guard against any party of marauders, with the strictest orders to cause
no annoyance or inconvenience to the inh